This book presents the results of a Summer School held at the Istituto Svizzero in Rome involving students from ECAL Master Type Design and ISIA Urbino. The workshop focused on questioning the period from 1922 to 1943, when Italy was ruled by Benito Mussolini under his fascist regime. Considering himself as a successor to the Roman emperors, Mussolini developed an iconography and an aesthetic in his propaganda that was mimicking and reinvesting those of the Caesars, including an extensive use of public inscriptions, cut in marble or moulded in concrete, imposing his person and regime as the Third Rome on the public space. While more discreet than imagery and pictures, type and lettering could equally serve as propaganda weapons. Analysing inscriptions, their aesthetic and their contexts can help the contemporary reader to question their own time, and the possible use of type design to convey political views. The texts collected in this publication give a historical overview of the time. How was fascist culture oriented? How was the New Typography received in Italy? How did Italian graphic designers manage to navigate through such complicated time?

Over 60 years of activity of the designer, artist, critic and theoretician Enzo Mari are documented though projects, drawings, unpublished materials, essays, interviews and tributes by internationally renowned artists and designers.

The first comprehensive monograph on Mario Bellini, one of Italy’s most versatile and influential designers.

The book is richly illustrated with over 500 images, including sketches and photographs, from Mario Bellini’s archive, published for the first time.

It includes a complete catalogue of Bellini’s design work, thematically presented, from calculators, typewriters, office and banking machines, to chairs, tables, sofas, and lighting. Features a series of essays, including an interview with Mario Bellini, covering the various aspects of his career and design processes.

A must-have book for architects and designers of all disciplines including product, furniture, lighting, textile, and graphics, as well as students of all these disciplines.